1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for culturing undifferentiated cells having pluripotency such as an embryonic stem cell (ES cell), and a multipotential adult stem cell, particularly a carrier for culture suitable for subculture and the like and a method for culturing a cell using the same.
2. Brief Description of the Background Art
In recent years, accompanied by the advance in the development on the separation of a stem cell from human bone marrow fluid, its differentiation induction into an object tissue cell, its three dimensional culture techniques, its scaffold material and the like, it became possible to produce tissues such as the skin, a bone, a cartilage, a blood vessel, a cardiac valve and a ligament from the stem cell by cell culture, and clinical application has already been started on a part thereof.
On the other hand, since undifferentiated cells typified by the ES cell are cells having such a totipotency by which the cells can be differentiated into all of other tissue cells, the cells are expected to be applied to the regeneration medical treatment.
Thus, studies have been energetically carried out on the method for inducing differentiation of undifferentiated cells into tissue cells. In order to use the ES cell for the purpose of regeneration medical treatment, a technique is necessary for mass-proliferating an ES cell line which is produced by fusing a nucleus-removed ovum with somatic cell nucleus of other individual.
Up to now, it has been confirmed that mouse ES cell can keep its undifferentiation property when co-cultured on a feeder cell typified by STO (mouse fetal fibroblast) and the like in the presence of LIF (leukemia inhibitory factor) (e.g., see Non-patent Reference 1).
Additionally, some reports have been published recently on the establishment of human ES cell strains also from human blastocysts, which have pluripotency and can perform cell division in the undifferentiated state for a long time.
As the general carriers for culture for proliferating or maintaining undifferentiated cells typified by ES cell and the like as described above, a plastic dish coated by biogenic compound such as collagen, gelatin, laminin and matrigel, wherein a mouse-derived or human tissue-derived feeder cell is proliferated, are conventionally used.
On the other hand, as a carrier for culture suited for the mass culture of a spherical cell mass, Patent Reference 1 discloses a cell culture tip equipped with a cell culture cell which keeps feeder cells regularly arranged in an array or honeycomb shape, by aggregating them, on the surface of a substrate consisting of inorganic material such as glass, metallic material such as stainless steel, synthetic resin, rubber or the like.
[Patent Reference 1] JP-A-2005-27598
[Non-patent Reference 1] Li Cui, Katsunori Sasaki, The Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry, 2004, 52, p. 1447-1457